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Skiers face blood doping tests

By
TARA PATEL in
PARIS

For the first time in the history of the Olympics, athletes competing
at this month’s winter games in Lillehammer, Norway, will have their blood
tested to check for ‘blood doping’, a technique in which athletes inject
extra blood to boost their stamina.

At this Olympics only skiers will be tested because the International
Ski Federation is the only sports body at the Winter Olympics with any experience
in testing blood for banned substances. But testing could eventually be
extended to all athletes.

Random tests of urine were introduced at the 1968 winter games in Grenoble.
Some drugs that enhance performance, such as steroids, can be detected this
way, but blood doping cannot.

Blood doping is banned by the International Olympic Committee, but the
procedure is hard to detect. Kare Birkeland, medical director of Oslo’s
anti-doping laboratory, says an athlete will typically inject up to 900
millilitres of blood, or the equivalent amount of red blood cells, between
one and seven days before a competition. The more red cells there are in
the blood, the greater its capacity to carry oxygen. This gives an advantage
to athletes competing in endurance sports such as cross-country skiing or
the biathlon.

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Athletes may use their own blood, banking a litre or so several months
before a big competition and then injecting it close to the event. Some
use donated blood, although this is much riskier. Norway’s national drug
testing laboratory in Oslo will use procedures similar to those used at
blood banks to detect the presence of blood ‘foreign’ to the athlete’s
body. They cannot yet detect addition of an athlete’s own blood.

The IOC agreed to let the federation experiment with blood tests only
after heated debate. Norwegian officials say they wanted to experiment with
other types of test to help them develop techniques to detect banned substances
which do not show up in urine. Two promising techniques are being developed
to detect the use of erythropoietin, a hormone which stimulates the production
of red blood cells, achieving the same as blood doping.

The IOC, under pressure from a number of European countries, rejected
the Norwegian plan because it felt the Olympics should not be the place
for experiments. The French government argued that athletes should be subjected
only to tests whose results are accepted as grounds for disqualification
and which will stand up in court. ‘Athletes have the right to know exactly
what they are being screened for,’ said one French government official.

Inggard Lereim, chief medical officer at the Lillehammer Olympics, says
that he had hoped that other sports federations, such as those governing
skaters, hockey players and biathlon competitors, would join in the tests.
But he said even the limited number to be carried out this year represents
‘an important step forward’ in the fight against drug use in athletics.